The FIBA World Rankings or NIKE-FIBA World Rankings are FIBA's rankings of national basketball teams. FIBA ranks men's and women's national teams in both senior and junior competitions. It also publishes combined rankings for all competitions involving both sexes.

Not included are rankings for 3x3, which are tabulated for individual players.

Contents

Only FIBA tournaments for full five-a-side teams are used in calculations for the tournaments. Other tournaments, such as regional championships, invitationals, and friendlies are not included. Also not counted are tournaments in FIBA's official competition for three-on-three halfcourt basketball, 3x3.[2]

In 2017, FIBA radically changed its ranking system for men's national teams, switching from the previous competition-based system to a game-based system. Every game played by a national team within the prior 8 years in the World Cup, Olympics, continental championships, and qualifiers for these events figures into the calculations.[3]. Until the Olympic Games 2016 the Olympic game and the men's world championship, gave identical score for being a world champion and Olympic, but since the new FIBA score fiba emerged in 2017 these two tournaments devalued the score, passing from 5 points play an Olympic and world championship as it was until 2016, to award 2.5 points for playing a world championship, and 2 points for playing an Olympic game of basketball since 2017. Therefore both tournaments will not grant a differential score with respect to others tournaments of National Teams, as they did in the past where there was no difference in points in the ranking for being world champion or Olympic, but if there was much difference until 2016 in fiba ranking points between these two tournaments and the rest of the competitions fiba as the continental tournaments. In the women will continue maintaining the score of 5 points for playing an Olympic or world game. But since 2017 will no longer keep the same score men.

Each game in a ranking tournament is initially valued at 1,000 basis points, divided between the two teams as follows:[3]

Victory margin

Points to winner

Points to loser

Less than 10 points

600

400

10–19 points

700

300

20 or more points

800

200

Forfeit

1000

0

The basis points are adjusted based on the site of the game, with FIBA calling this adjustment home/away points. During the finals of ranking tournaments, only games played by a host team in its own country count as "home" games; all others are treated as neutral-site games. Adjustments are:[3]

Home game: −70 points

Neutral site: No adjustment

Away game: +70 points

The basis points are also adjusted to reflect the strength of the opponent. FIBA determines what it calls opposition ranking points by the following formula:[3]

The new calculations still account for the specific tournament and region, as in the former procedure, but no longer explicitly consider a team's final tournament placement.

In a new feature, a time decay factor has been introduced into the calculations. More recent games carry the greatest weight, steadily declining until falling out of the calculations after 8 years:[3]

Time of game

Weighting

Current year (Y) and immediately previous year (Y−1)

1.0

Y−2 and Y−3

0.75

Y−4 and Y−5

0.5

Y−6 and Y−7

0.25

Regional weighting remains in the system, though the specific factors vary from those used in the past men's rankings: Until the men Olympic Games 2016, the Olympic games and the men's world championship gave identical score for being a world champion and Olympic, but since the new FIBA rakning fiba emerged in 2017 these two tournaments devalued the score, passing from 5 points play an Olympic and world championship as it was until 2016, to award 2.5 points for playing a world championship, and 2 points for playing an Olympic game of basketball since 2017. Therefore both tournaments will not grant a differential score with respect to others tournaments of national teams, as they did in the past where there was no difference in points in the ranking for being world champion or Olympic, but if there was much difference until 2016 in fiba ranking points between these two tournaments, and the rest of the competitions fiba as the continental tournaments. In the women will continue maintaining the score of 5 points for playing an Olympic or world championship. but since 2017 will no longer keep the same ranking men.

FIBA uses a weighted arithmetic mean to determine the statistical weight of each of the tournaments. Each event is assigned point weight that is based partly on how competitive the tournament is and partly on which national teams are participating:[2]. There were constant changes in the system of the FIBA ranking, but it can be seen that until 2016 the FIBA world championship and the games awarded the same points in the FIBA ranking, therefore the FIBA world championship and the Olympic basketball games had the same value. Therefore for those years the World Cup and the Olympic tournament had the same prestige according to the ranking of those years. In the year 2017, according to the ranking system in the FIBA ranking, published on October 11, 2017 for the first time in history, the FIBA world championship awards more points than the Olympic tournament: 2.5 points the world championship, against 2 points the olympics games. For all this the FIBA 2019 world championship will be the first more prestigious championship than an Olympic basketball, given that it will be worth 2.5 points and the Olympic 2020, 2 points.

The 2017 FIBA ranking started on October 11, 2017. Since that date, the FIBA World Cup is worth 2.5 and the Olympic Games 2 points, although the new ranking published on October 11, 2017 is not applicable to the tournaments played until 2016, given that both tournaments they maintain the same score (5 each one).

In the future, the World Cup will be worth 2.5 points and the Olympic basketball tournament 2 points, therefore in 2019 for the first time in history the FIBA World Cup will give more points than an Olympic basketball game.

From 2017 forward, FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania members compete for a single regional championship under the FIBA Asia banner. Results from the 2010–2016 period, during which FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania held separate championships, will continue to figure into the rankings until results from 2016, the final year of separate championships in the two regions, drop from the calculations in 2025.[3]

In a new feature, FIBA also weights game results by the competition stage.[3]

Stage

Weight

Pre-qualifier

0.25

Qualifier

0.5

Final tournament

1.0

Additionally, FIBA has added a round weighting to the system, giving each game in a final tournament (World Cup, Olympics, or continental championship) a weighting based on the round in which it takes place. Qualifying matches for these tournaments implicitly carry a round weighting of 1.0.[3]

Round

Weight

Group stage

1.0

Round of 16

1.25

Quarterfinals

1.5

Semifinals

1.75

Final

2.0

If a competition does not have a round of 16 and/or a quarterfinal round, the results from the rounds that are held are scaled according to the number of rounds, with the group stage remaining at a 1.0 weighting and the competition final remaining at 2.0.[3]

The final weighting is the product of the time decay, regional, competition stage, and round weights.[3]

FIBA still uses the competition-based system to determine its women's rankings. As noted above, this system was also used to determine men's rankings prior to 2017. FIBA has announced that it will introduce a game-based ranking procedure similar to that currently used for men's rankings in the indeterminate future.[4]